Most savvy Christians know that the prohibition to judging in Matthew 7:1 has to do with wrong judging, and not with judging altogether.

“I didn’t know that!”

Sure. In John 7:24 Jesus commands us to judge a righteous judgment. And, here in Matthew 7, he explains that he is speaking about the one who does not first take the log out of his own eye before he removes a splinter from another’s. That comment presupposes he will judge once he has dealt with his own sin.

“I guess I hadn’t connected that rightly.”

Yeah. But there are a couple of other things in the passage that also ought to be noted.

“Like what?”

Like v. 6.

“What has that verse got to do with the subject?”

Everything.

“Please explain.”

Gladly. Here’s what Jesus said: “Don’t give what is holy to dogs; and don’t throw pearls before pigs; otherwise, they may trample them with their feet and turn on you and attack you.”

See, that has to do with judging too.

“It does? Can’t see how.”

Well, for one thing, if you want to obey it, you will have to first determine who is a dog or hog!

“So?”

So, that’s judging.

“OH! I gotcha.’”

It’s none of our business to judge the actions and words of unbelievers; we have enough to do to rightly judge our own. Paul said, “What reason would I have to judge those who are outside [unbelievers]? Isn’t it those who are inside [Christians] that you are to judge?”(I Corinthians 5:12,13).

“Wow! That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?”

Very clear. But that’s not all. Jesus said that if you give valuable advice when trying to judge unbelievers (your dogs and hogs) they’ll not be able to assay its value and trample it underfoot, or turn on you because it wasn’t what they thought it was.

“Oh. Oh! I see that it can be dangerous to deal with such people.”

Proverbs has a powerful way of saying the same thing: “Whoever reproves a mocker gets insulted, and whoever corrects a wicked person invites bruises!” (Proverbs 9:7).

“Had no idea about such things. You mean he might punch me out?”

Literally or figuratively, yes.

“Woof!”

Yep. Lots of people who don’t have a biblical perspective, get angry over such reproof. It’s time we started focusing on those things in the church that need cleaning up before we take on the unsaved who can’t appreciate the value of biblical teaching.

“I can see that.”